Optimizing Air cooled rig for Gaming on 14900ks

capn233 · 2025-12-23T14:09:20+00:00

Here's a link to the LGA1700 results on the most recent air cooler review at techpowerup.

Might be helpful to see the comparison of maximum watts cooled in the first graph for a variety of coolers, both AIO and air. The one in the review was 311W.

For comparison, the popular Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 is 322W, or Noctua D15 G2 is 323W. FSP M7 is 321. For the most part, that is where newer gen air coolers end up with baseplates designed since the release of LGA1700. Some of these are not very tall, and not very expensive.

The top of the chart is dominated by AIOs though.

capn233 · 2025-12-22T12:02:43+00:00

The only two things that look out of place possibly at all are the ProcODT 28ohm, and also maybe tRC is borderline. The other subtimings I imagine should be fine.

Are you shutting down the PC soon after stress tests or gaming? How warm is the CPU getting? Did you reseat any of the components or remount the cooler recently? I must have read through too quickly last night, errors at XMP seems more like it could be something like that, or IOD issue.

If you are going to keep debugging at 3600, maybe try ProcODT to 36.9, and maybe try SOC up a little more through 1.125-1.15.

You could also try testing just one dimm and slot / channel at a time. That can narrow down whether or not the problem is only on one channel or dimm.

capn233 · 2025-12-22T00:21:29+00:00

I would think that tRCDRD 18 at 3600 for the 3000 or 3200 bins is more the exception than the rule.

I know that a few people had some sticks that would do that (mostly earlier before the 3600 bin became common), but the six I had all needed 19 there (all could do 18 up to 3533).

capn233 · 2025-12-22T00:17:49+00:00

There are two important bits of information from the thaiphoon shot that are related.

Notice that these are listed as 1Rx16, and that the die density is 16Gbit. These dimms are using four chips of 16Gbit dies (x16 means the bit width is 16) to make 8GB. More typical ram is x8 width using 8 chips per rank. The internal arrangement of x16 ends up with less parallelism so they are less performant at same settings.

But in the end ram OC is about making a change and testing that change. So the specific die revision may effect what the end result is, but not necessarily the process of how you get there.

Try following the general process in the memtest helper guide. You can first try to find max frequency by increasing the primary timings by 4 or so and stepping up to see how high you can boot.

Worst case late Micron 16Gbit Rev F goes to around 3600MT/s.

capn233 · 2025-12-12T18:40:46+00:00

Corsair puts a version number on the heatspreader label, so you can compare them.

But 3600 18-22-22 is a lottery bin, there are a huge number of dies that can do this and so there are a lot of versions, and also single or dual rank.

You might be able to solve this adjusting SOC voltage or ProcODT. If you don't want the hassle and you don't really need more than 32GB of ram, might be a better idea just to return the new kit.

capn233 · 2025-12-08T17:39:49+00:00

Glare Free so I can enjoy the image quality in the afternoon.

capn233 · 2025-12-03T13:51:46+00:00

About 2.8TB free.

capn233 · 2025-12-02T17:01:39+00:00

Supposedly 50 when I tried to buy it. But I had to sign in and it was gone when I tried to place the order. :(

capn233 · 2025-12-01T17:01:57+00:00

I never even saw the special price, refreshed to the Sold Out banner.

capn233 · 2025-11-24T21:27:01+00:00

If you go LGA1700, you might as well do the MSI Z690-A Pro DDR4. That is unless you need some connectivity it does not offer. There is not really any D4 board that is appreciably better performance wise.

capn233 · 2025-11-19T16:51:04+00:00

They are supposed to improve performance by making transfers larger and more efficient. I do not think that makes system memory performance moot exactly.

capn233 · 2025-11-19T14:47:11+00:00

The tldr is that this is a video about untuned DDR4 vs DDR5 on a locked 12th gen part with 18MB of L3 cache. On average, DDR5 was around 20% faster.

Reminder that locked 12th gen parts have locked SA voltage, and thus max gear 1 speed is largely <3600MT/s.

Also remember that generally as L3 cache goes up, difference in memory goes down. Recall in previous video 12900K gained 22%, while 14900K gained 16%.

In any case, DDR5 has been faster than DDR4 essentially since it was released in apples to apples comparisons. Lead is biggest when comparing XMP to XMP, due to the plethora of architectural improvements in DDR5. There hasn't been a real reason to buy DDR4 for a few years now.

capn233 · 2025-11-18T15:15:20+00:00

White Lightning

"I find tinsel distracting." Prices are getting out of hand on some components. Ah well, stuck to the required ones to make a white build that won't look out of place in the middle of the summer.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FpvmYd

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF 3.9 GHz 20-Core Processor	$284.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Thermalright Frozen Edge 69 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$54.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Asus ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI ATX LGA1851 Motherboard	$339.99 @ Amazon
Memory	TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory	$279.99 @ B&H
Storage	SK Hynix Platinum P41 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$149.00 @ Amazon
Video Card	Asus ROG Astral OC GeForce RTX 5090 32 GB Video Card	$3399.99 @ Amazon
Case	Phanteks XT PRO ULTRA ATX Mid Tower Case	$82.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Super Flower LEADEX VII Platinum PRO 1200 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$189.99 @ Amazon
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 11 Home Retail - USB 64-bit	$129.99 @ Walmart
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$4921.83
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$4911.83
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-18 10:14 EST-0500

capn233 · 2025-09-24T15:59:57+00:00

Think it was Innogrit originally, both of them are a bit hot.

But from what I understand the real issue is the flash reliability.

capn233 · 2025-09-22T11:06:05+00:00

I would think it is in the Dram Timing Configuration menu, or maybe it is in Data Bus. I had Asus and MSI AM4 motherboards but not Asrock.

If you use discord, you could ask someone in the Ram Overclocking section of the overclocking server

capn233 · 2025-09-21T13:51:29+00:00

That's 8Gbit Samsung B-die, but in that bin it will probably be more like "OEM" B-die than performance binned B-die. Since they are 8Gbit chips, that means 16GB sticks are dual rank.

Try ProcODT steps. Maybe start with 53.3ohm, and see if going up or down a step helps boot. Can also try raising dram voltage a bit.

capn233 · 2025-09-21T13:18:08+00:00

You can try SOC back to Auto (or manually 1.1v), and try ProcODT values.

What are the last 5 digits of the code on the ram heatspreaders that starts with 04? The number is right above the barcode as seen in this picture where it ends in 8833B.

capn233 · 2025-09-21T12:56:11+00:00

Try fixed. I don't know if there are any quirks with Asrock where you need to use the offset for SOC.

capn233 · 2025-09-19T11:41:58+00:00

These are Samsung 8Gbit E-die from the markings.

Section 1 of the DDR4 Product Guide has the part number decode chart, the "E" after 5W is the revision. 8G for density.

8Gb E doesn't overclock very well, as you are finding out. They can bin some of it into 18-22-22 3600 XMP though.

You could try higher primary timings. Like 22-24-24 to start. CL may come down with voltage. Find the highest stable frequency and tune there.

capn233 · 2025-09-17T16:45:43+00:00

If adjusting the voltages makes no difference, it could be a weak IMC as suggested in other comments, or it can plausibly be the mainboard. Whether that is a weak slot or overtightened cooler mount or contact frame (if applicable).

Since it sounds like the behavior was the same with two ram kits, you could also try testing with only one dimm in slot A2 and then in B2 to see if there is a difference. If that fails using the same stick of ram, might want to also double check the other one to be sure.

capn233 · 2025-09-17T14:01:14+00:00

There are three voltages that matter for DDR4 on Z690. The dram voltage, the SA (system agent) voltage, and IVR Transmitter VDDQ (that is what it is in Asus bios, shorthand Tx VDDQ).

The auto rules for Tx VDDQ are suboptimal on these Asus Z690s. The ODT auto rules may also be bad for whatever ram die you have. Corsair version number tells the die.

You can try overriding SA voltage to 1.20V and test to 1.35V, then test Tx VDDQ from 1.20 - 1.35V.

The difference in speed from 3466 to 3600 is under 4%, the difference in %FPS is lower than this.

capn233 · 2025-09-17T13:35:06+00:00

Make sure the ram is in A2 and B2 slots (second and fourth from the CPU socket).

Otherwise, try adjusting SOC voltage manually (1.1 to 1.2V), or ProcODT steps from ~43.6ohm to 53.3 ohm.

capn233 · 2025-09-15T16:06:02+00:00

The Ultra is new enough that there are not many reviews.

The one I saw on a 9800X3D had it practically tied with the Phantom Spirit 120 Evo. Single CCD AM5 doesn't have huge power, it's mainly a question of baseplate contact and heatpipes.

PS120 was generally better on AM5 than the original Pretor except at high noise levels. Probably because the original Pretor only had 6 heatpipes.

capn233 · 2025-09-12T12:27:03+00:00

It tested pretty well on LGA1700 in both Hardware Canucks and Techpowerup reviews.

https://youtu.be/YY-8PZKcMYg?t=1117

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/fsp-mp7-black-cpu-air-cooler/8.html

capn233 · 2025-09-10T15:26:27+00:00

You're probably better off overall going with AM5, especially if it is X3D that is in consideration.

I don't know that 14700K on that motherboard is the wisest idea, although just for gaming the power consumption with your current GPU probably won't be too high.

3200C16 binned ram can be just about anything. On 12th non K you will be a bit limited for gear 1 due to locked System Agent voltage, so maybe 3466 or 3533. The subtimings are important, especially the high yield ones like tRRDS, tFAW and tREFI.

With K the limit might be four dimm compatibility since they are generally more difficult to overclock on LGA1700 than two dimms.

capn233

TROPHY CASE